not welcome, and the coffee was reserved for officers. Unfortunately, the only telephone was in there and Landers or the 1st/sgt had to go in there to use it. But the coffee was not free even to the clerk force.
“I know what a key man you are around here, Sergeant,” Mayhew said from behind his desk, “You have not,” and he smiled, “escaped even the eyes of Second Army.
“But I am not happy with that rating you wear. The rating for an assistant clerk on the T.O. is a corporal. You’re on the T.O. as a section sergeant. But you’re not really handling the section you’re assigned to. You’re mostly in here, doing clerical work. We’re going to have to do something about that. Lt Prevor was inclined to be sloppy with his designations.” He smiled again.
Landers did not trust himself to answer for a moment. Rage was charging through him. “Yes, sir,” he said evenly, after a few seconds. “I suggest you bust me back down right away, then. I didn’t ask for the rating I’m wearing. And in fact, didn’t want it. You can bust me to corporal, and I’ll function as your assistant clerk. Or you can bust me down to private and I’ll go back to straight duty.
“Matter of fact, I’d just as soon be a private doing straight duty, in your outfit, sir.”
Mayhew’s face could not help registering surprise. Then it stiffened sharply. “No. That’s not what I want. You will continue as you are. We’ll see about all the rest, later. Do you think the first sergeant and clerk are capable of handling their jobs yet?”
“No, sir,” Landers said. “They’re certainly not. Nor are the mess sergeant and supply sergeant, without help.”
“Then I want you to keep on what you’re doing. Forget about your section and spend your time teaching the cadre. That’s all, Sergeant. You’re dismissed.”
“Yes, sir,” Landers said. Then he decided to be sarcastic. “Thank you, sir.” But it appeared lost on Mayhew.
Landers had to go somewhere by himself and sit down to cool off. Was the man stupid? Was he some important person’s nephew? He clearly knew, from Second Army if from no other, how much Landers had done and was doing to keep the 3516th running. Then why go out of his way to antagonize a man he needed?
From that moment on there was a sort of generic hatred between them, hidden and covered up by Landers, but open and openly expressed by Mayhew. Landers began to slack off in his evening work, and evening teaching. There was no way in the world Mayhew or anybody could order him to do office work after supper, not without risking an investigation. Anyway, the 1st/sgt and clerk did not relish working evenings, unless pressed to it by Landers. Besides, Mayhew kept the commander’s office locked by key, and that was where most of the work material was. Landers began going to movies in the evenings, or getting drunk on beer at the small sectional local PX, or just sitting around thinking about women. The lack of women was beginning to get to him now, after all these weeks.
One time he was able to talk to Lt Prevor about it, out in the freezing cold company area, just at dusk one freezing cold evening. Landers wanted to be released from his tacit promise not to make trouble. Prevor reluctantly released him, but at first refused to.
“What do you mean, make trouble? What more trouble can you make, if you’ve stopped teaching the cadre? Anything more would have to be open sabotage of the office work. You can’t do that.”
“I can quit. Go back to straight duty as a private,” Landers said. “That would make plenty of trouble.”
“But you’d be cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“You don’t want to go back to straight duty.”
“I wouldn’t mind straight duty. Tossing gas cans around in the trucks would be heavenly, compared to working for that son of a bitch.”
“You wouldn’t feel like that after you’d been doing it a little while,” Prevor said.
There was something else, too, he could do. But Landers instinctively shied away from mentioning it to Prevor. He could go over the hill: desert. That could cause Mayhew the worst trouble. Landers felt like laughing. But he did not want to mention it to Prevor. Anyway, after talking to Prevor, he did not feel quite so bad. Although Prevor in effect released him from the so-called promise, he decided